Quote Originally Posted by Duguntz View Post
All this seems very interesting Watchman, but even without novelty of tactic, i for a part, am sure the Roman would have been beaten, at the end, by exaustion of man ressourses. account (by modern historians, not ''patriotic'' accounter of the period) talk about fielded armies of sometime a wooping 1 000 000 soldiers. Now, i'm sorry if i name no name, not that I want to hide, butmy history books are all home in Canada, so it's hard to make quotation when I'm in Bucharest, as i don't hold internet for a veeeeery trustworthy source!

Still, Chinese were not, as were gauls or less organised societies, a disorganised warband, but always were represented very organised, often using a ''phalanx'' type of... squadron (is the word appropriate?) anyhow, so clearly show a level of organisation rivaling the romans, for the mobility of troops. now, when you put basicly two armies on a par level of organisation, and maybe not using the same tactics, but, on the same ''tactical ability'', i do think rome would have been overcome by sheer number. Because ok, i take example at Cannae... terrible defeat for the roman, but througout (sorry for orthograpf!) chinese military history, considering that both side together formed roughly 150 000 soldiers, this was but a rear guard of an much MUCH massivier army (we should not forget that we're speaking about numbers approaching the million men... for the chinese side)

Resume... at the end of the world, pool of men wins the day... (IMHO)
this means nothing the romans at their height had a population of 100 million people within their borders and had they wished so they could probably turn 10% (?) of it into military units

also i never heard the chinese using artillery the way ceaser claimed he used so in a pitched batle the chinese would have all of it´s formations disgruntled and disorganised by the scorpions onagers and other artillery

as for the way the chinese used their heavy infantry to create a strong base for cavalery and missiles to work from belisarius also used similar tactics with far less resources then the roman emperial time so i suspect the romans wouldn´t be caught off guard

furthermore the chinese huge army would represent a big burden to feed and have available water while going trough euroasia so it´s very likely that such a burden would undoudabtly end up with civil strifes and rebellions in china

imho it would all end up in who the generals where and how well both societies where willing to endure the costs of a such a war and in this regards i don´t remember the chinese having the same type of experience as the romans did in the punic war

also roman politicians seem a bit better in persuading foreign powers to help them and the mauryan empire would probably end up taking the roman side because seriously they had faced the sassanids and chinese more often then the chinese and therefore they would probably have more to gain by suporting the romans also the nomadic tribes could probably also benefit more from siding with the romans so overall it´s a war the chinese couldn´t win imho even tough the batles would be tough and dificult for the romans (makes litle sence ? yes i know but from my point of view even if the romans would have alot of dificulties winning the 1st batles they would place themselfs in a position where they couldn´t loose)

reason for it? the romans where quicker to adjust and adopt new tactics and weapons then the chinese